Watch | Prince says Saudi Arabia will stay in charge of Hajj

Senior Saudi royal, Prince Turki al-Faisal, says the management of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage is “a matter of sovereignty” and “privilege” for the kingdom and will not be given up or shared with other nations. In an interview to the Associated Press he added, “I think they're trying to make political capital out of this, which is unfortunate. As our foreign minister said, human suffering should not be a tool for political shenanigans.”

Al-Faisal is a senior royal who served for more than two decades as head of intelligence and after that as ambassador to the UK.

He currently heads the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh.

His father was King Faisal and his brother the late foreign minister Saud al-Faisal. His other brother is governor of Mecca, Khaled al-Faisal.

During a visit to the UAE for the Beirut Institute Summit, a think-tank conference on issues of the Arab world, al Faisal spoke about the disaster at the this year's pilgrimage which killed more than 1400 people.